Australian Football

Match Report

The Adelaide Crows showed no sign of "Showdown hangover" as they made short work of GWS at the Sydney Showground on Saturday afternoon. Coming off a big win against top side Port Adelaide a week earlier, the Crows showed no signs of complacency as they kicked five goals nil in the first quarter and went onto outscore the Giants in each subsequent quarter on the way to a 68-point win.

GWS did not help its own cause in the first term, worthy woeful inaccuracy leading to a score at the first break of 0.8 against the Crows' 5.6 to trail by 28 points. The Giants would add two further behinds before finally kicking their first major of the day at the 12-minute mark of the second term via Will Hoskin-Elliott. They added another four minutes later through Tomas Bugg but Adelaide meanwhile went on its merry way, kicking another five goals for the term (two to Eddie Betts) to lead by 47 points at the long break.

The Giants were slightly more competitive in the third quarter, adding 3.4 for the term but Adelaide made it three five-goal quarters in a row to take a commanding 60-point buffer into the final change of ends. Both sides scored freely in the last term with the pressure off and the game opening up. The Crows kicked five goals for the term yet again to make it a clean sweep of five-goal quarters, while GWS added four its own, the final margin being 68 points in Adelaide's favour.

Rory Sloane played an outstanding game for the victors, picking up 32 touches and taking nine marks, while Brad Crouch (24 disposals, seven tackles) and James Podsiadly (11 marks, three goals) were also fine players. For GWS, Shane Mumford (38 hitouts, five tackles) and Adam Treloar (31 possessions and five marks) tried their hearts out across all four quarters.

The win keeps Adelaide's finals hopes well and truly alive. A game outside the top eight, the Crows will take on Hawthorn at the Adelaide Oval on Friday night. The Giants, 15th on the ladder with a 4-11 record, can expect a very tough time of it next Sunday when they travel to Perth to take on the Dockers at Subiaco.

GOALS
GWS: Palmer 2; Mumford, Coniglio, Hoskin-Elliott, Bugg, Williams, Patton, Cameron
Adelaide: Betts 5; Podsiadly 3; Wright, Jenkins, Sloane 2; Jacobs, Mackay, Smith, Martin, Lynch, Crouch

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
GWS: Mohr, Mumford, Palmer, Treloar, Shiel, Williams
Adelaide: Sloane, Martin, Crouch, Henderson, Wright, Betts

BEST - SPORTAL.COM.AU
GWS: Mumford, Mohr, Palmer, Treloar, Shiel
Adelaide: Sloane, Martin, Crouch, Henderson, Betts

COACHES' COMMENTS
Leon Cameron (GWS): When we kicked eight points in the first quarter, you could see the belief from the players start to drop away. That was really disappointing because that's a mental attitude. Regardless of whether it's not working on the scoreboard, you've got to be able to keep pushing through it. That was disappointing.
Brenton Sanderson (Adel): We were 47 points up at half time and we're a bit disappointed that we really couldn't put the for down. I know we had some players with players being injured and we had to shuffle things around a little bit. I know we won four quarters but it didn't really feel like we played a solid four-quarter game today.

INJURIES
GWS: Nil
Adelaide: Rutten (face), Dangerfield (knee)

SUBSTITUTES
GWS: Josh Kelly replaced Kristian Jaksch in the third quarter.
Adelaide: Rory Laird replaced Ben Rutten in the first quarter.

UMPIRES: Hay, Foot, Jeffery

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